Backtalking...

I now have 3 little back-talkers at my house. Since Andrew has been out of school, this phenomenon has exploded, and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. Whenever I ask my children to clean, or explain consequences for their disobedience, this is usually what I hear:

Andrew: "You're not the boss of me!"
My response: "Seeing as how I created you, I'm pretty sure I am the boss of you."

Ella: "You're the meanest Mom in the whole wide world!"
My response: "I can get you a new mother if you'd like."

Noah: "I don't like you anymore!"
My response: "I guess you'll have to dislike me then."

Can you sense the unsympathetic nature of my responses? I'm not very good at listening to why my children are upset with me, mostly because I just don't care. I'm always explaining that there are certain rules in our house and that the kids are expected to follow those rules. I seem to remember my Mom handling the back-talking in pretty much the same way, and I figure, we all turned out pretty good, so it must have worked!